I caught myself again looking at the Prophet 08 and Virus and I was getting ready to order one of these today and I realized... What's the point? There are a million beat makers like me out there and, although I think I'm good, even the best producers out there are making chump change. 50 k a year is chump change when you spend more than 8 hours a day working in music.

I love making music but when I started making tracks in 06 I was under the impression that I was getting myself into a unique line of work. The more I learn, the more I realize how slim the chances are of me ever making a good living for myself. I consider 70k (net) a year or more to be a good income. Now, music is not everything I do, but the last few months I tried really hard to make that at least a possibility. I made a website for myself and really started working on finishing beats. I finished about 9 in a little over a month. I know I can do better.

The point is... Life is too short to spend all your time and money on a hobby that might never give you back what you put into it. I don't want to end up being the guy working at guitar center, still hoping my beats will get heard by a top dog and then I'll get my pay day.

But im not giving up. I will just keep my pockets full and until the business shows me some love, it gets no love from me. Im afraid there might be a day when ill get fed up with music and sell everything I acquired and that'll be it. But its hard to see that happening.

I stopped thinking of it in that sense. Now I love my hobby. Some buy cars and bikes we buy audio gear. Accept it as a hobby and just rock on. In fact people follow me and ask me to make songs with them including one BIG name but I just want to have my Hobby for me.

Dont get discouraged you can make 50-70k on soundclick bro in todays over saturated market. just gotta have more than 1. Or start diversifying, record rappers mixtape tracks for $25 an hour. Learn how to do mixtape covers $50 a peice. Get a DSLR camera for $500. Learn how to shoot and edit music videos. Package it up with beats, 2 beats, 2 songs recorded, and 1 video for $600. Knock that out 2x a week thats well over 50k a year tax free. Learn how to make simple websites, charge $800-$1000 for a band website.

I made my 1st beat a little over a year ago, now i pay my rent doing this stuff(all local 0 placements minimal online sales) My Stuff isnt the best ever its about relationships. You only need about 30 clients to start up. Get out there and meet 30 people who spend money on their music and do something for them for cheaper than they are paying now.

I caught myself again looking at the Prophet 08 and Virus and I was getting ready to order one of these today and I realized... What's the point? There are a million beat makers like me out there and, although I think I'm good, even the best producers out there are making chump change. 50 k a year is chump change when you spend more than 8 hours a day working in music.

I love making music but when I started making tracks in 06 I was under the impression that I was getting myself into a unique line of work. The more I learn, the more I realize how slim the chances are of me ever making a good living for myself. I consider 70k (net) a year or more to be a good income. Now, music is not everything I do, but the last few months I tried really hard to make that at least a possibility. I made a website for myself and really started working on finishing beats. I finished about 9 in a little over a month. I know I can do better.

The point is... Life is too short to spend all your time and money on a hobby that might never give you back what you put into it. I don't want to end up being the guy working at guitar center, still hoping my beats will get heard by a top dog and then I'll get my pay day.

But im not giving up. I will just keep my pockets full and until the business shows me some love, it gets no love from me. Im afraid there might be a day when ill get fed up with music and sell everything I acquired and that'll be it. But its hard to see that happening.

Not to be a smart ass or anything. But your whole mindset is setting you up for failure. And every response in this thread is that of a negative mindset. Typhy touched on how the universe will bend for you but he gave up before he made that remark. Accept it as a hobby and a hobby it will be. Those who worked their asses off yes. He nailed it.

But it does not have to be all about just hard work. we love it, so its not like its trying become a millionaire cleaning peoples houses and scrubbing toilets. Along with hard work, goal setting, and the right mindset and beliefs. You can achieve anything, and these tools puts you in a better position than the next guy with talent, a million dollars and a world class recording facility. If he does not have the former, the latter are worthless.

Is response to cam citi, i respect your grind and your hustle 100% dont take offense to this, but unless you love doing everything you mentioned then your a sell out to yourself. Your worth more than that. Guys giving yourself value is step number 1. I realized as long as i was offering the cheap beats and cheap mixes. all i got was cheap clients. But then when i stepped it up i got better clients, Clients who i enjoyed working for.

The business model that cam citi explained has diluted this industry and especially the hiphop sector. All it does is make the industry as a whole have less value, and destroys it for a lot of other people. and those contributing to that are just devaluing themselves.

@Realzimeant no offense taken Its all love , I would agree the hustle mentality can hold you back if you become a slave to chasing the $$$ or you get comfortable and stop learning and getting better.

To the OP, just stay with it man, believe in your creativity and willingness to learn, sounds to me like you just need a pick me up!!! this always does it for me, i watch it like once a week, still gives me chills sometimes.

@Aka-I-Addict na man not completely new, was in the school band in 6th grade, Percussion section Last Chair every week, but i quit after a year because they werent showing me how to be in Limp Bizkit (so i thought). Started rapping in 09 paying for studio time and soundclick beats, recorded 2 mixtapes then quit. Then last August I wanted to start making beats, Picked up a few books and googled everything constantly, fell in love and havent looked back since.

It took a lot of sacrifice it wasnt over night, I committed 100%, no job, no steady girl, no going out unless it was to local shows, no sleep, no one to teach me, just music and reading all day everyday for a year straight.

@Aka-I-Addict na man not completely new, was in the school band in 6th grade, Percussion section Last Chair every week, but i quit after a year because they werent showing me how to be in Limp Bizkit (so i thought). Started rapping in 09 paying for studio time and soundclick beats, recorded 2 mixtapes then quit. Then last August I wanted to start making beats, Picked up a few books and googled everything constantly, fell in love and havent looked back since.

It took a lot of sacrifice it wasnt over night, I committed 100%, no job, no steady girl, no going out unless it was to local shows, no sleep, no one to teach me, just music and reading all day everyday for a year straight.

I caught myself again looking at the Prophet 08 and Virus and I was getting ready to order one of these today and I realized... What's the point? There are a million beat makers like me out there and, although I think I'm good, even the best producers out there are making chump change. 50 k a year is chump change when you spend more than 8 hours a day working in music.

I love making music but when I started making tracks in 06 I was under the impression that I was getting myself into a unique line of work. The more I learn, the more I realize how slim the chances are of me ever making a good living for myself. I consider 70k (net) a year or more to be a good income. Now, music is not everything I do, but the last few months I tried really hard to make that at least a possibility. I made a website for myself and really started working on finishing beats. I finished about 9 in a little over a month. I know I can do better.

The point is... Life is too short to spend all your time and money on a hobby that might never give you back what you put into it. I don't want to end up being the guy working at guitar center, still hoping my beats will get heard by a top dog and then I'll get my pay day.

But im not giving up. I will just keep my pockets full and until the business shows me some love, it gets no love from me. Im afraid there might be a day when ill get fed up with music and sell everything I acquired and that'll be it. But its hard to see that happening.

these are all valid points but another approach could be to just work with up coming artists and get work off the buzz they generate sorta like noah 40 with drake situation.

but the production game was nice in the early 2003's really open but now with the saturation levels obviously its more **** to sift thru

@Aka-I-Addict na man not completely new, was in the school band in 6th grade, Percussion section Last Chair every week, but i quit after a year because they werent showing me how to be in Limp Bizkit (so i thought). Started rapping in 09 paying for studio time and soundclick beats, recorded 2 mixtapes then quit. Then last August I wanted to start making beats, Picked up a few books and googled everything constantly, fell in love and havent looked back since.

It took a lot of sacrifice it wasnt over night, I committed 100%, no job, no steady girl, no going out unless it was to local shows, no sleep, no one to teach me, just music and reading all day everyday for a year straight.

still an awesome and impressive achievement. something to be proud of for sure

@Realzimeant no offense taken Its all love , I would agree the hustle mentality can hold you back if you become a slave to chasing the $$$ or you get comfortable and stop learning and getting better.

To the OP, just stay with it man, believe in your creativity and willingness to learn, sounds to me like you just need a pick me up!!! this always does it for me, i watch it like once a week, still gives me chills sometimes.

This video is a nice share, as you might of gathered from my previous post im all about personal development and achievement. I offer coaching services and business consulting too it works nicely with what i do in artist development. It also another area im passionate about.

Your story is similiar to mine nothing but music, the soundclick thing, i can see it being a decent business avenue. I just prefer too invest my time in other areas.

But im not giving up. I will just keep my pockets full and until the business shows me some love, it gets no love from me. Im afraid there might be a day when ill get fed up with music and sell everything I acquired and that'll be it. But its hard to see that happening.

The point is... Life is too short to spend all your time and money on a hobby that might never give you back what you put into it. I don't want to end up being the guy working at guitar center, still hoping my beats will get heard by a top dog and then I'll get my pay day.

This is a really sick way of looking at things. Life is not purely about getting paid and making a return on investment. A hobby means you really have a passion for something, and you'll spend whatever you can, within reason, to be able to work on what you love. If that hobby turns out to start generating revenue, then great. But it shouldn't be the reason why you're doing it in the first place. So many teenagers are seduced by videos or stories of guys getting paid to lounge around and smoke with their boys in the studio. They see music not as a rewarding creative outlet, but as a lottery to get paid without working hard. If you want to make good money, stay in school and get a degree. Leave art to the people who give a ****.

This is a really sick way of looking at things. Life is not purely about getting paid and making a return on investment. A hobby means you really have a passion for something, and you'll spend whatever you can, within reason, to be able to work on what you love. If that hobby turns out to start generating revenue, then great. But it shouldn't be the reason why you're doing it in the first place. So many teenagers are seduced by videos or stories of guys getting paid to lounge around and smoke with their boys in the studio. They see music not as a rewarding creative outlet, but as a lottery to get paid without working hard. If you want to make good money, stay in school and get a degree. Leave art to the people who give a ****.

I have 2 degrees and I'm 26. At some point you have to get married, have children, buy a house, etc. Not possible when all you do is sit in the studio and bang out beats and try to promote your ****. Music is really what I love to do, and I am pretty good at making it I think. That's why I posted on here.

Cam Citi, you offered some good advice, thanks. And to the rest of you, thanks.

This is a really sick way of looking at things. Life is not purely about getting paid and making a return on investment. A hobby means you really have a passion for something, and you'll spend whatever you can, within reason, to be able to work on what you love. If that hobby turns out to start generating revenue, then great. But it shouldn't be the reason why you're doing it in the first place. So many teenagers are seduced by videos or stories of guys getting paid to lounge around and smoke with their boys in the studio. They see music not as a rewarding creative outlet, but as a lottery to get paid without working hard. If you want to make good money, stay in school and get a degree. Leave art to the people who give a ****.

agree but if u can get paid for chillin in the studio smoking , making beats and chillin in vip with some bad bitches and get more money and less hassle and more money than a 9 to 5 why is someone wrong for aspiring to do that?

if that will bring them joy and he got love for music seems like a perfect situation

I have 2 degrees and I'm 26. At some point you have to get married, have children, buy a house, etc. Not possible when all you do is sit in the studio and bang out beats and try to promote your ****.

Do I really have to get married, have children, buy a house, etc??? That aint the life for everyone....and it shouldnt mean that other things
Must be given up in order to live that life, if thats what you want. You can choose not to marry a woman who's okay with you giving up your life's passion for living a life of obligatory motivations with her....
Theres plenty of room outside the box, if you can see it

Soundclick won't make you 70k a year. Start building relationships with other artists, creating a body of work as a producer and not just a dude selling beats online. That's how you start getting recognition. Anything is possible nowadays through the internet but doing sht in real life is 100x better. If that's not possible in your area then either move or try and get your beats to artists, A&R's, managers, etc through the internet along with the thousands of other producas, and hope you have a unique enough sound to catch their ear. For rappers you can get on mixtapes all the time through twitter, if your sht is actually hot. If it's hot enough than you will catch peoples ears and start getting some calls, if the rapper/rappers people don't respond, then get back in the lab for a few more months.

$70k net is a LOT better than "good income". That's way better than most people, at least in the United States, will ever see in their lives.

Very true.

People nowadays seem to be more motivated by the money rather than the passion. I'm not stupid though, it works both ways. It needs to generate enough income to make it worthwhile in the long run, but for me, new $100,000 dollar cars and $1m yachts aren't important. So long as I can make enough to actually live on (i.e. 50-100k) a year, I'll go to the grave a happy man.

I started making music in 2002. Since then, I have only sold 3 tracks. I spent well over $15,000 on a home studio (MPC, Motif,Triton, Digi 002, etc). This past summer, after not making a beat in 2 years, I sold most of my gear. With that money, I paid off stupid debt. Now 6 months later, I want to buy all that crap again. I realize, music is what I want to spend money on. IT'S AN EXPENSIVE HOBBY

It would really help to be a musician first. If you can't commit to learning to play an instrument without computers, drum machines, and the rest of the BS and be able to entertain people by playing music live, you have no real foundation. One you can really PLAY music , your production skills grow exponentially, and you'll be able to produce in more than one genre.

I agree with OP, don't spend money when you are not sure of the way you are getting that return on investment...

Honestly, I have a bedroom which looks more like a studio and I have had the means to entertain it financially. And I could make some money from music if I really wanted to. But it is quite time consuming for something which at best, is some side money.

Plus I was rarely in there as I have been working abroad for a full year last year.
I am 26 as well, a handful of degrees and more ambition than what music can bring to me.

Music had to remain a hobby therefore. I still buy some plugins here and there though (pluginslut here and any pun would be unintentional lol)

Just make music that you love to vibe out to and perfect your craft and forget what other people are doing. First things first, music making should be fun, not some job or chore that you're dreading because "I need to make x amount of money". I have to remind myself of that all the time.

Look at Kev Brown and the Low Budget Crew or this UK crew Louis Den Beats (S-Type, Jaisu, Kelakovski, Kosyne). To me, these cats are the masters of 'low budget' music! You can find every sound you want on some record (digging required) or on a simple keyboard (don't have to drop thousands on it though unless you really want to). So you should always ask yourself if it's really a necessary purchase.

Kev Brown isn't living in a mansion in the Hamptons, and he makes AMAZING beats! Sell your soul to the radio devil if you so choose. Maybe you can bring back that good ole boom bap haha. Good luck my friend!